Direct chemoselective reduction of plant oils using silane catalysed by Rh(iii) complexes at ambient temperature

Abstract

We report here a rare example of direct and chemoselective catalytic reduction of various plant oils to unsaturated fatty alcohols and glycerol. The selective reduction process is achieved using 0.5 mol% of a rhodium complex and diphenylsilane at room temperature without using any solvent producing a mixture of unsaturated fatty alcohols in yields >90%. We also observed that the selectivity of the reduction process (CC vs. ester) depends on the nature of silane.